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McCarthy Fails to Win Enough Votes for Speaker; Uncle: Hamlin Resuscitated Twice After Hit; FDA to Allow Pharmacies to Dispense Abortion Pills to Patients. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 04, 2023 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: People are stealing pick-up orders when you order to go.

[06:00:04]

We're ordering a lot from Chipotle, Panera, Starbucks, to go. About 58 percent of all orders at these limited-service restaurants in all orders at these limited service restaurants in 2022 were for pickup.

But people are stealing them or they're taking the wrong orders. And it's creating a hassle for stores. It's costing them money. And then it's really frustrating shoppers. And you're starting to see some stores move the pickup orders behind the counter or even maybe add pickup lockers.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Yes, or pick-up police, right? There's a special place in hell for people who steal my Chipotle.

All right. Nice to see you. Thank you so much, Nathaniel.

Thank you joining us. I'm Christine Romans, CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there any circumstances under which you would consider pulling out of the race for speaker?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is not one?

MCCARTHY: No. There's not one.

(END VIDEO CLIP

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Three strikes for Kevin McCarthy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.

LEMON: But he says it's not over yet. It is not over yet. Good morning, everyone. I mean, look, you're looking at Kaitlan in Washington. Obviously, it is not over yet.

HARLOW: I told you she wasn't going to be here. I called this at the end of the show yesterday.

LEMON: Yes. She's going to need some friends and drinks and debriefing when she gets back.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And some extra clothes.

LEMON: Some extra clothing we'll send you before you get back.

Kevin McCarty failed to -- I'm Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow. Kaitlan's in Washington, as you can see. Kevin McCarthy failing to win enough votes to become the House speaker. What's going to happens today when Congress reconvenes, and how long will the power struggle last?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: That's the question, Don, because there's still chaos happening here on the Hill. We're going to speak with members of McCarthy's party who voted for him and against him and for him and then against him. The showdown is now spilling out to a second day here.

HARLOW: And resuscitated twice. That is what we have learned overnight. How far the medical staff had to go to save Damar Hamlin's life. What his uncle is telling CNN. We'll take you live this morning to Cincinnati.

COLLINS: Well, we begin this morning here on Capitol Hill with Republican rebellion that is preventing Kevin McCarthy from achieving his dream of becoming House speaker for now.

McCarthy failing to get enough votes on three separate ballots that stretched for hours yesterday. The voting and the potential stand-off is going to resume in the House in just a few hours from now.

It is the first time in a century that members of Congress failed to choose a speaker on the first ballot. Despite the historic stalemate, McCarthy tells CNN that he still has no intention of dropping out of the race and that he does still have the backing of former President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTHY: From that perspective, he thinks it's better that all the Republicans get together and solve this. It doesn't look good for Republicans, but we want to be able to solve it when we're stronger in the long run. What we went through today, in the end, becomes a positive that we're actually focused, united.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Did he say does he want you to stay in the race?

MCCARTHY: Yes. Oh, yes. I mean, he's got a lot of people on the hustings (ph). (END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: We should note Trump has not said that publicly.

CNN's Lauren Fox is here, joining us now. Is it clear, as of 6 a.m. this morning, what Kevin McCarthy's strategy is going to be today?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are again finding ourselves in this historic moment, with Republicans having this, really, a stalemate over what is going to happen next in their leadership, in their future governing of this body. They were elected in November, and so far this is what voters have seen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kevin McCarthy --

FOX (voice-over): The newly-elected Republican majority on Capitol Hill at a stalemate, with no speaker elected.

MCCARTHY: This is a healthy debate. So it might not happen on the day we want it, but it's going to happen.

FOX (voice-over): Republican leader Kevin McCarthy still fighting for the leadership role, even after losing three rounds of votes Tuesday.

Congress adjourned after the third vote, when 20 GOP members voted against McCarthy, all voting instead for Representative Jim Jordan. Jordan, for his part, does not want the job, voting three times for McCarthy.

The so-called never-Kevin Republicans working the phones well into the night, trying to grow their opposition to McCarthy.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): We need the leadership and the tools to stop the swamp from running over and stepping all over the American people. Right now, I'm holding the line, because I think we need this place to operate differently.

FOX (voice-over): The California Republican remaining confident, telling reporters Tuesday night he only needs 11 more votes, suggesting that some members of Congress may vote present to lower the threshold he needs to cross the finish line.

MCCARTHY: We've got to find a way that we all work together. So I don't know who else could actually put that together. I don't think there's enough.

FOX (voice-over): Although the GOP in-fighting races on, with Representative Matt Gaetz, in a letter to the architect of the Capitol, questioning why McCarthy is allowed to occupy the speaker's office, writing, "How long will he remain there before he's considered a squatter?"

[06:05:06]

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise.

FOX (voice-over): McCarthy supporters feel it was a mistake to adjourn Congress Tuesday and are frustrated the party's being held hostage by two percent of its members.

REP. BLAKE MOORE (R-UT): The support is still strong for Kevin McCarthy, and no one is now saying we want to find a consensus candidate.

FOX (voice-over): It was conversations like this one between representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Paul Gosar, where some in the GOP feared Democrats were planning to leave the floor or vote "present" so Kevin McCarthy could have a lower threshold to become the speaker.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: It is unlikely, but it is -- there's always a possibility.

I do believe that, in some of those conversations, there are things that are happening on the floor. These machinations are happening on the floor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOX (on camera): And this is what Democrats have been arguing all along, that this is really showing disunity among Republicans. That this is showing that they aren't ready to govern.

The more likely scenario is that moderate Republicans at some point get to the place where they say McCarthy is not going to have votes. We may need to have some conversations with Democrats about whether there's some kind of consensus moderate Republican candidate.

I don't think Democrats are going to leave the floor to give Kevin McCarthy the upper hand, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Well, noticeable, because he is in the speaker's office right now. We'll see how long he keeps his stuff there.

Lauren Fox, thank you for the reporting.

So who is going to be Nancy Pelosi's successor? There are a number of ways this could play out, as Lauren was just noting there. So here to walk us through some of the possible scenarios is CNN's senior data reporter, Harry Enten.

Harry, obviously, McCarthy failed to get the votes yesterday. It was three ballots that we saw. What are you expecting to happen today when they're back at noon

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, that's the big question, what can happen? And we're basically in uncharted territories here, at least over the last century.

So let's walk through some of the possibilities. Right? All right. Let's start with option No. 1. History says that Kevin McCarthy can still win this thing. Just go back over a century, right, the last time we had multiple ballots.

Frederick Gillett, who was the GOP leader back then, won on the ninth ballot, after failing on eight ballots. He was able to do so by cutting a deal with an ideological wing. In that case, it was the progressives. But much like Kevin McCarthy may need to do here, where heh could cut a deal with the very conservative wing.

OK. But if it's not Kevin McCarthy, then, who may it be? OK. So one option is majority leader Steve Scalise. Why is he a potential alternative?

One, unlike McCarthy, he faced no opposition in the November leadership election, so he seems more popular, at least broadly, among the GOP in Congress.

Two, heh has a more conservative vote record than McCarthy. But keep in mind, because he's a little bit more conservative, he could lose moderates.

And also keep in mind, he isn't as conservative as most of the anti- McCarthy reps. So maybe he won't work out.

Well, then you might have to move on to option No. 3. Perhaps it will be the former House GOP deputy whip, Patrick McHenry. Keep in mind that he's ideologically in between McCarthy and Scalise.

Think back to 1999 when, in fact, you had a similar size in Congress, and it was the third option back then, Dennis Hastert, who became speaker.

So those are three potential options, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: OK. Those are three options, but it feels like we're operating in a bit of a wild-wild-west scenario here, where no one really knows what's going to happen.

So if there's an alternative, what happens then? Because right now committees are going to have interim chairmen. There's no legislation that's going to get passed. It's kind of at a gridlock here on the Hill.

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, look, could be that perhaps the anti-McCarthy reps, their choice, Jim Jordan, gets elected by the more moderates. Maybe the moderate GOP gives in.

Or maybe you end up with that coalition government that you were just speaking about there, with some deps -- some Dems backing, in fact, the more moderate Republican.

Or maybe what ends up happening is Hakeem Jeffries, some moderate reps are like, Screw it. We're going to go with him.

So look, who knows what's might happen, Kaitlan? It's the wild wild west.

COLLINS: Yes. Sure is. Harry Enten, thank you.

Don, I mean, just speaks to the moment that we're seeing here on Capitol Hill.

LEMON: Yes. And back to all the details and the chaos in just a moment, Kaitlan.

This morning, new details on Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's fight for his life. He suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during Monday night's game against the Cincinnati Bengals after making a tackle.

Hamlin's uncle describing to CNN his nephew's condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP

DORRIAN GLENN, DAMAN HAMLIN'S UNCLE: Well, his heart had went out, so they had to resuscitate him twice. They resuscitate him on the field before they brought him to the hospital. And then they resuscitated him a second time when he got to the hospital.

So I just want to show my gratitude for the medical staff that were on hand, because if not for them, my nephew probably wouldn't even be here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's get right now to CNN's Adrienne Broaddus, live for us now, in Cincinnati with more. Good morning to you, Adrienne. What else did we learn from Damar's uncle about how he's doing?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Don.

Damar's uncle, Dorrian Glenn, told me his nephew is fighting. This morning, he is still in the intensive care unit, listed in critical condition. His uncle tells me he is on a ventilator and sedated.

[06:10:11]

The family also saying they won't be able to rest until Damar is out of the ICU.

Here's more on my conversation with Damar's Uncle Dorrian.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN: He's sustained some -- some damage to his lungs, and they're working to try to -- to try to remedy that. And they got him on a ventilator to help with the breathing, too, just to take some of the strain off his lungs so they can heel and recuperate. So yes, it's just -- just a sad situation all the way around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: Dorrian also telling me that Damar is lying on his stomach. Doctors told the family they put him in this position to take the pressure off of his lungs. And that's what you heard him describing there in the conversation.

And it's also helping, according to Damar's Uncle Dorrian, it's helping to remove the fluid from his lungs -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Adrienne Broaddus in Cincinnati. Adrienne, thank you very much. We appreciate that.

I want to bring in now CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Doctor, good morning to you. We're learning all these new details. Your reaction to what you heard from the uncle in that interview with Adrienne, what he had to say, that he had to be resuscitated twice, once on field, again at the hospital.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, these are some concerning details. I will say that, you know, at some point we will hopefully hear from the medical team to get a better idea of what exactly has transpired. You know, sometimes things can get a little bit lost in translation with all these things.

But what we had heard was that Damar had had a defibrillator placed while he was on the field. His heart had been in this fibrillation like state, meaning that instead of pumping normally, it was doing what you see there on the screen: sort of quivering, fibrillating.

And that's why you defibrillate. To essentially try and create a more normal rhythm again.

That seemed to have worked. We saw that he was waiting in the ambulance, taken to the hospital, but then now, according to Adrienne's reporting, it was an unstable electrical rhythm. He needed to be resuscitated again. So that's obviously of concern.

Also, he's on this breathing machine, but it sounds like, in order to better ventilate him, they needed to flip him over onto his chest. And that's a sign that he's probably had fluid that's built up in his lungs.

Essentially what happens is the heart not beating well, fluid starts to back up into the legs, into the feet, but also into the lungs. And that becomes very hard for gas, for oxygen, carbon dioxide, to exchange. So one thing you do is you flip somebody over.

You may have heard us -- remember us talking about similar sorts of things at the beginning of the pandemic when they were trying to figure out how best to ventilate patients.

These are concerning signs. He's a young man, otherwise presumably healthy. We still don't know what's at the root cause of all this, what exactly happened. That will help determine, give an idea of outcomes, as well.

But these are -- he's got a long road in front of him. And I suspect at some point we'll hear from the medical teams, but it may not be for a while, because they still need to continue to assess, take care of figure out the impact this has all had on his other organs, as well.

HARLOW: Sanjay, I assume that these few days are really critical in terms of getting an indication as to how he might recover and how full his recovery could be because that's very possible, to have a really full recovery.

GUPTA: Yes.

HARLOW: When do you think we would have an indication of that?

GUPTA: Well, first of all, it is -- it is possible, and I think the biggest advantage that he has, again, is he's a young healthy man prior to all this, so that's certainly going to work in his favor.

What I would say is that, you know, you've got to measure these things in days and weeks, as opposed to hours and days. It could take some time.

And typically, the medical establishment will be conservative before they're going to give any kind of prognosis or sort of updates, because they want to have all the data. And they also want to be able to see how the impact has been on his other organs.

Right now, he's probably in what some people would sort of describe as a medically-induced coma. When the heart is not working well, the two things you want to do: you want to try and increase the function of the heart but also decrease the demands from the rest of the body on the heart. And that means sedation. It might even mean hypothermia, cooling someone down. So that just take a while. I would say it's going to be days, probably, before we start to hear things definitively.

LEMON: Yes. Listen, I've read -- have the timeline yesterday of, you know, when it happened, how long it took for them to start resuscitating them, getting him on the field, getting him into an ambulance, getting him to the hospital.

The question is, it's still not known why he went into cardiac arrest, right?

GUPTA: Right.

LEMON: And whether, you know -- I wonder if the NFL are examining what happened there, and also, if they were prepared enough at this moment, you know, when this happened, and are they prepared going forward?

[06:15:11]

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, with regard to the first question, yes, I've been talking to sources very high up at the NFL. That is a question that they're going to try and answer as to obviously what exactly happened here, although it is worth saying you may know know. You may not know for certain exactly what happened. Sometimes these answers aren't clear. But what I think is really important here, as well, is that if you look at the resources that the NFL has in order to take care of someone -- a situation like this, it's pretty incredible.

I mean, first of all, they do this emergency action plan meeting before the game starts. Both teams, both medical teams, the referees, everyone getting together. Who's going to do what? Who's in charge?

They also have a Level I trauma center that is designated. They have two crews of paramedics and ambulances on stand-by. And they have defibrillators that are available at all times.

That's an incredible amount of resources, and you saw that come into play. Within seconds, they were assessing him. There was hand signals, radio signals: bring on the paramedics. So all that took place really quickly, and I think it made a difference, obviously, as we've heard.

Most places don't have that level of resources. A high-school game, you know, that may not have that same sort of thing. What -- what happened here in terms of the sudden cardiac arrest that could happen anywhere, these resources are really crucial in order to save someone's life.

HARLOW: I had no idea they do all that before the game. Wow, that's eye-opening. And it is a lot.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

So this morning the NFL says the Bills/Bengals game will not happen this week. One of Hamlin's teammates, Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins did this remarkable interview with our colleague and friend Wolf Blitzer. And here's what he said about that being the right call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DION DAWKINS, BUFFALO BILLS OFFENSIVE TACKLE: I'm truly blessed that we didn't have to keep playing. We don't control that. The fact that we don't have to go right back out there on that field and play. It just shows that there is care. And that's all that we can ever ask for is that, you know, we get treated as people. Because you know, like, most people just treat us as athletes and as superstars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: No one knows that better than our Coy Wire, who joins us live from Buffalo. We should note you were a safety. You played the same position as Hamlin on the Bills six years on that field. You're there now.

Talk about being there and also how consequential that -- how consequential that decision is by the NFL that -- that you just heard him say made them feel like humans.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Right, Poppy. Yes, this is an unprecedented decision. It's powerful, too. Most importantly for the human aspect, Dion Dawkins described, it shows there is perhaps a paradigm shift occurring before our eyes within the NFL regarding the importance of player health and safety. In this case, the mental health, too? Right? To cancel that game in the middle of the game.

But I spoke to a high-ranking league official, Poppy, heavily involved in the decision-making process regarding game scheduling. And they told me there are intense discussions about how and especially if this Bills/Bengals game should be finished.

Huge play-off implications regarding seeding and potentially receiving a bye for Buffalo. As a former player, I would be nauseated by the thought of having to return to that stadium after witnessing and being traumatized by what I witnessed.

If the game is not made up, Poppy, and since the Bills and Bengals would each have one less game than the other AFC play-off contenders, I'm told that the league would then use win percentage of team records to determine playoff berths, seedings, etc., as opposed to their overall record, Poppy, which is typically how it's determined.

LEMON: Listen, not surprising, Coy, that there's been outpouring, you know, in Buffalo, so much support. But this much, my goodness.

WIRE: Don, Damar needs it. The team needs it. I spoke to a high- ranking official within the organization about 11:30 last night, after a long day of meetings. And they broke down sobbing, sobbing because of the heaviness of everything this team, this city, these people have been through.

The moment you land in Buffalo, you walk through the airport, you start seeing signs and shirts reading, "Pray for Damar" everywhere. The Buffalo Sabres hockey team arriving last night at their game in Washington wearing a shirt reading, "Love for 3." That's Damar's jersey number.

And in the arena, they -- there was a powerful moment when Tage Thompson, their star, on January 3rd, just three minutes into overtime was Tage Thompson's third goal, his third hat trick and 30th goal of the season.

The team tweeting afterwards that this one was for Damar. It may, Don and Poppy, be a sign that something much higher than just the people are part of the outpouring of the support that you speak about, Don.

HARLOW: Yes. Amen to that. That's that Dion Dawkins was saying yesterday to Wolf, too. Prayers, prayers and prayers.

[06:20:02]

Thanks, Coy.

LEMON: Thanks, Coy.

HARLOW: Next, a big move overnight by the FDA, allowing pharmacies to offer abortion pills even as some states seek to ban them.

LEMON: And the Idaho quadruple murder suspect stopped by police twice before his arrest. You're going to see the body cam video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back. This morning, the FDA is announcing a big move on access to abortion. We're talking about the pill or the medication for it.

[06:25:03]

This comes, of course, after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

What's changed is that pharmacies, like your average pharmacy, is now able to sell these abortion pills to people who have a prescription.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Tara Narula joins us now. So you need a prescription.

DR. TARA NARULA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Correct.

HARLOW: But this is different than the morning-after pill, for example.

NARULA: Yes. So this is basically meant to medically induce an abortion. And as you said, this is probably going to expand access to many, many women, making it much easier, if they want, to be able to get these pills by going to, potentially, their local pharmacy.

And so historically, in order to get access, a woman had to go in- person to a doctor's office, hospital, or clinic and get that drug right there.

Over the course of the pandemic, that was changed a little bit. So a woman could have a telehealth visit and have it sent to them by a mail order from a certified pharmacy.

But now the FDA is saying you don't have to go in person, No. 1, and No. 2, you could potentially go to any of these brick-and-mortar pharmacies who fill out, essentially, paperwork to make themselves certified.

So it remains to be seen how many off the big chains like CVS or Walgreens are going to do this. Will we see this in the beginning in just smaller pharmacies?

But what we may see, as well, is more doctors being willing to prescribe these drugs, because they don't need to stock the drugs in their office. So it's definitely going to become easier for a lot of women.

LEMON: It's interesting, because over the holidays I saw an ad. Could it be for this, because they just did this --

NARULA: Really?

LEMON: I saw an ad. The woman walking out of a pharmacy, saying, you know, my -- you know, I was able to make my own choice. And blah, blah, blah. I don't know if it was for the morning-after pill.

HARLOW: Or advocating for this.

LEMON: But I thought it was for this particular thing. I don't know.

NARULA: So this -- yes, I mean, this is basically -- we're talking about a two-drug regimen. We know that medication-induced abortions are actually responsible for over half of abortions in this country. So they've kind of overtaken surgical abortions.

LEMON: Yes.

NARULA: And basically, we're talking about the first drug, mifepristone, in a two-drug regimen. It's that first drug that was difficult to get.

And you can take that up to 10 weeks. And this drug has been around since 2000. So this is really a big change for a lot of women.

HARLOW: OK.

LEMON: Thank you, Dr. Tara Narula.

HARLOW: Thank you for helping us understand.

LEMON: Thanks.

Kaitlan.

COLLINS: All right. And back here on Capitol Hill, that historic speaker vote was peculiar in more ways than one. There were a few eyebrow-raising moments you may have missed on the House floor yesterday. And what were Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar talking about?

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point in the investigation, we do not believe Mr. Renner was impaired at all, and we believe this is a tragic accident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We so have new details about what happened to actor Jeremy Renner. His first photo that he put out from his hospital bed, his message to his fans and an update on his condition ahead.

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